Saint-Germain, Latin Quarter & Marais Guided Bike Tour Paris

Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Place Saint-Sulpice

The ride starts at Place Saint-Sulpice, the square in front of the second-largest church in Paris, whose unfinished twin towers and fountain of four bishops are a landmark of the Left Bank. Saint-Germain-des-Prés grew around an abbey founded in the 6th century; its church tower is the oldest in the city, and the streets between it and the river are lined with the cafés, art galleries, publishers and antique shops that gave the district its reputation as the literary heart of Paris.

On the Saint-Germain bike tour you pass the abbey church, the covered passages and the tiny Rue de Furstemberg, one of the most photographed squares in Paris, while the guide explains how writers and painters made the cafés here their offices. You return to the district later in the ride on the way to the Odéon and the Luxembourg Garden, so you see it from both sides.

Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis

From Saint-Germain the route crosses the Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris (finished in 1607), onto Île de la Cité, the island where the city was founded. The guide stops at Place Dauphine, a quiet triangle of brick and stone houses, and points out the Conciergerie, Sainte-Chapelle and the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral before crossing to Île Saint-Louis.

Île Saint-Louis was laid out in the 1600s as a single residential project and has barely changed since: one main street of 17th-century mansions, bakeries and ice-cream shops, with quays on all sides. It is one of the calmest places to cycle in central Paris and gives the classic view back towards the east end of Notre-Dame. Allow a few minutes for photos from the Pont Saint-Louis, which links the two islands and is closed to cars.

The Marais and Place des Vosges

Crossing the Seine to the Right Bank, you enter the Marais, the district that kept its medieval street plan when the rest of Paris was rebuilt in the 19th century. Half-timbered houses, 17th-century mansions with courtyards, the historic Jewish quarter around Rue des Rosiers with its bakeries, and fashion boutiques in old stables all sit within a few blocks; today it is also known as one of the liveliest neighbourhoods in the city.

The highlight of the Marais bike tour is Place des Vosges, completed in 1612 as the first planned royal square in Paris: a perfect square of 36 red-brick pavilions over arcades, around a garden of lime trees and fountains. The guide explains how it set the pattern for squares across Europe. From here it is a short ride to Place de la Bastille, where the column marks the site of the fortress-prison whose fall on 14 July 1789 is celebrated as France's national day.

The Seine riverside bike path

From Bastille the tour escapes the traffic entirely on the Rives de Seine, the former riverside expressway that was closed to cars and turned into a promenade and bike path. You ride at water level past the moored barges and the walls of the quays, with Île Saint-Louis and Île de la Cité on one side and the Hôtel de Ville, the city hall, rising above the other. This stretch is flat, wide and car-free, and the guide usually calls a short break along the water.

The path gives a different angle on everything you saw from the islands: the flying buttresses of Notre-Dame, the Pont Marie and the Pont au Change, and the long facade of the Louvre further on. Returning to the Left Bank, the route passes the Monnaie de Paris on Quai de Conti, the mint founded in 864 and still producing coins and medals, before climbing gently back into Saint-Germain.

Odéon and the Luxembourg Garden

The Odéon quarter sits between Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter, around the columned Théâtre de l'Odéon of 1782 and the market streets of the Carrefour de l'Odéon, where the guide tells how kings, revolutionaries and students shaped the area. A few pedal strokes further is the Luxembourg Garden, 23 hectares of lawns, tree-lined alleys, statues and the octagonal pond where children sail toy boats, laid out in the 17th century around the Luxembourg Palace, now the French Senate.

The garden is the rest stop of the ride, and the best time to visit the Luxembourg Garden is exactly when the tour arrives: late morning or mid-afternoon, when the chairs around the pond and the Medici Fountain are in the sun. Bikes are walked inside the gates. From here the guide points out the view up to the Panthéon before the last part of the ride into the Latin Quarter.

The Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne

The Latin Quarter takes its name from the language spoken by scholars at the university that grew here from the 12th century; the Sorbonne, founded in 1253, still dominates the hill with its domed chapel and courtyards. Around it lie the Collège de France, the Panthéon, the Roman baths beside the Cluny museum and, a little further, the Arènes de Lutèce, a Roman amphitheatre rediscovered in the 19th century, all reminders that Paris was a Roman town long before it was a capital.

The narrow medieval streets between the Sorbonne and the river, once the most dangerous backstreets of the city, are today full of bookshops and small restaurants, and the ride ends back near Place Saint-Sulpice. Taking this Latin Quarter bike tour early in your stay works well: in three hours you see the whole Left Bank and the Marais and know exactly where you want to return on foot.